BowTieXP 2025 v12.0.7

BowTieXP is the most used risk assessment software that is based on the bowtie method. It enables you to easily create bowtie diagrams to assess risk. BowTieXP is unique in its ability to visualize complex risks in a way that is understandable, yet also allows for detailed risk-based improvement plans.

A bowtie diagram visualizes the risk you are dealing with in one understandable picture. The diagram is shaped like a bowtie, creating a clear differentiation between the proactive and reactive side of risk management. In BowTieXP, the bowtie diagram provides you with an overview of multiple plausible incident scenarios and shows what barriers you have in place to control these scenarios. BowTieXP software is developed with the end-user in mind, making it one of the most user-friendly risk assessment tools. It is easy to create a diagram in BowTieXP, but the software also enables you to maintain the diagram so it will always represent the current status of your safety barriers.

Structure knowledge

The bowtie method structures major hazards of your organization and gives you a clear overview of how your hazards are controlled. The barriers in the bowtie diagram show what controls you have in place to prevent, mitigate or eliminate major consequences from happening. Making people responsible for barriers makes transparent what everybody is supposed to do to operate safely. When operational staff is involved in the development of a bowtie, accurate daily operation information is included and this way staff will take ownership of the bowties.

BowTieXP provides the possibility to visualize your Safety Management System (SMS) on the diagram. Each activity can be traced back to the barrier it is supporting. The SMS exists primarily in identifying safety critical activities, undertaken to assure the on-going integrity of risk barriers. Displaying all data on the bowtie enables everyone to see the complete risk context, together with the activities they are responsible for.

Analyze and assess

Once you have built a bowtie diagram, you can analyze and assess the safety barriers that you’ve implemented. Various categories can be linked to these barriers to identify amongst others the effectiveness, type or accountability of each barrier. Analyze the barrier effectiveness to get instant visual insight into the strength of your barriers. In BowTieXP barrier effectiveness is often shown with a traffic light color code, but this is customizable to your needs.

Analyzing barrier types will help you to increase the robustness of the organization and decrease the likelihood of common mode failure.

Accountability can be linked to barriers via customizable job titles. This helps to get insight into which people are responsible for the performance of safety barriers. It makes transparent what everybody is supposed to do to operate safely and increases ownership of barrier performance.

Easy to read & communicate

Bowtie diagrams ensure easy risk communication by making the risk visual and understandable on the right abstraction level. To distribute the bowtie diagrams, organizations are using posters, pocketbooks and leaflets for example to highlight key risk control issues. Web-based bowtie diagrams are also increasingly a part of online training and information systems. This makes sure that risk communication is fully integrated into the organization.